PACT AMONG 11 NATIONS IS GOAL OF TRADE TALKS IN SAN DIEGO

Agreement would lower barriers for Pacific Rim countries

Over the next week, San Diego is the site of negotiations for a free-trade agreement among 11 countries in the Pacific that could ease restrictions on imports and exports for the 21st-century business world.

The meeting of the delegations, the 13th round, is meant to reduce tariffs and other barriers among the United States and countries including Brunei, New Zealand and Vietnam.

The proposed agreement, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, would be part of President Barack Obama’s goal of doubling exports from their 2009 levels by 2014. The U.S. already has free-trade agreements with some of the participants. No agreement will be struck in San Diego because Canada and Mexico were recently approved to join the talks, but have yet to participate. There is also speculation that Japan could soon join.

In America, about 1 percent of companies currently export. Fifty-eight percent of those companies export only to Canada and Mexico, where there is free trade, said Michael Masserman, executive director of export policy, promotion and strategy for the U.S. Department of Commerce. Masserman said, however, that 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the United States. Tariffs and lack of protection for intellectual property have made it less attractive for American companies to tap into those markets.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the most important trade agreement you’ve never heard of,” said Laura Dawson, a consultant to the Canadian government.

Dawson was one of several stakeholders, including business leaders, government officials and academics, who participated in a round-table at the Institute of the Americas at University of California San Diego on Tuesday to discuss the talks. Dawson said the TPP would allow the U.S. to access economies that are growing rapidly at 7 or 8 percent annually, much more quickly than the U.S. growth of about 2 percent.

Masserman said at the panel that San Diego is the nation’s 17th-largest metropolitan export region, with $16 billion of goods exported in 2010, supporting 65,000 jobs. The TPP would provide a boost to the area’s technology, telecommunication and consumer electronics companies.

But it’s not just tech that could benefit. It could be household products in countries with high demand, and the shipping industry, too. Shiumei Lin, director of public affairs for UPS Asia Pacific, said eased trade restrictions would lower the cost of logistics.

“We always say that with every free trade agreement the U.S. signs, our export volumes go up by 28 percent, and with every 22 packages that cross the border, we equate that to one U.S. job,” she said.

The talks, however, have been criticized for being private. Those not part of the U.S. delegation can only attend public outreach events, even though Congress and the president must approve the deal. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, issued a statement when he was denied access.

“The TPP process should be transparent and open to oversight, not a secretive backroom negotiation. TPP agreements impact multiple sectors of the American economy — especially our ability to innovate and create new intellectual property, as well as preserve an open Internet,” he said.